Eliphaz: the Innocent Prosper

1Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:

2If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?

3Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:

4Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:

5But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.

6Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?

7Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?

8On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,

9Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.

10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken:

11The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.

12Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth as it were received the veins of its whisper.

13In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,

14Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:

15And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.

16There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice as it were of a gentle wind:

17Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?

18Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:

19How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?

20From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.

21And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.